Valuable
by No Guns Only Roses
Summary: It was made clear in the comic that Mikey viewed Leo as a courageous, confident leader who never gave up, no matter what. A hero.


**So Ryo-chan wolfgirl wanted me to do a one-shot for the episode "Parasitica". Hopefully she'll like what I've typed up for her, as well as the rest of you wonderful readers. Enjoy :)**

 **Also, if my description of the pages of Mikey's comic doesn't exactly flow, please forgive me. I don't usually do these kinds of things.**

 _Sigh…_

It was another long day for Hamato Leonardo.

He had had enough of Raph's constant bickering, Donnie's incomprehensible babbling, and Mikey's…well, goofiness, for the day. He just wanted to relax in the quiet, peaceful sanctuary of his bedroom. He was too tired to even do his usual meditating. The only realm he'd be visiting this evening was the realm of dreams.

He opened the door to his room and was about to plop himself down on the bed when he spotted what appeared to be a booklet lying on top of it. That's odd… he doesn't remember putting anything on his bed before he left.

He picked up the booklet and realized that it was actually a homemade five-page comic book. The cover had a drawing of Leo, himself, wearing a space helmet (though he thought it looked more like a fish bowl) and a rocket pack, and he was standing on top of some unspecified blue-green planet. He was giving a toothy smile and thumbs up to the viewer. Stars filled the black background, and in the distance behind Leo, a spaceship was blasting off with yellow flames coming out of the engine.

At the top of the cover read the title in big blue words, " **THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN LEONARDO!** " And at the bottom right read smaller words, " **By Mikey**." There was yellow sticky note on the cover before Leo peeled it off and read the message:

 _Hey bro_

 _Hope ur not 2 mad_

 _Made u a comic :)_

Leo flipped the cover and began to read the first page of the comic…

* * *

" _ **Soaring through the vastness of space, the heroic Captain Leonardo and his faithful crew enjoy the magnificent view from the windows of their ship."**_

 _The same space ship that was on the cover was flying through the stars and planets. Leo and his brothers were looking through each of the windows with smiles on their faces, expressing their contentment._

" _ **Suddenly…"**_

" _Captain!" Donnie suddenly cried out, looking scared and pointing to an unseen force. "Look! There's danger afoot!"_

" _I'm afraid the danger IS the Foot, Donatello," Captain Leonardo responded with a serious look on his face._

 _A bigger, malevolent looking ship with a Foot symbol painted on the side was flying toward them. Sitting on a throne was what appeared to be the Shredder. "Prepare to feel the wrath of_ _ **EMPEROR SHREDHEAD**_ _, fools!" he shouted. He ended with a, "_ _ **MWA HA HA!**_ _"_

" _Oh, no, Captain Leonardo!" Mikey cried while wringing his hands. "What are we gonna do?!"_

" _Calm yourself, Michelangleo!" Leo said with his hands on his hips. "We'll do what we always do whenever we face a threat…" He then pointed at the viewer and shouted in all-caps, "_ _ **FIGHT WITH EVERYTHING WE GOT!**_ _"_

 _Four turtle hands were shown giving each other a high-three, the word, "_ _ **YEAH!**_ _" in a shout bubble above them._

 _The turtles put on their helmets and rocket packs, jumping out of their ship toward the enemy's. They each drew their usual weapons out, and another large shout bubble read, "_ _ **BOOYAKASHA!**_ _"_

 _The Shredder pointed his finger at the turtles, shouting, "_ _ **DESTROY THEM!**_ _" At his command, a bunch of Footbots that were also wearing rocket packs charged at them._

" _ **BRING IT ON!**_ " _Raph shouted while pointing a sai at them._

 _And so a great battle ensued. Leo and his brothers smashed and slashed through the Footbots._

 _ **POW!**_

 _ **CLANG!**_

 _ **K-BLAMM!**_

 _ **SWISH!**_

 _ **Sizzle…crackle…**_

 _Sure enough, all the Footbots had been destroyed, their remaining parts floating around the triumphant Turtles._

 _Leo smiled and once again put his hands on his hips. "Good job, team!" he exclaimed. "Now let's get Emperor Shredhead!"_

" _Not so fast, Turtles," the Shredder said with his arms crossed. "I still have one trick left up my sleeve."_

 _ **DUN! DUN! DUN!**_

 _Some kind of laser cannon was suddenly on top of the Shredder's ship._

" _Everyone, quick!" Leo shouted, pointing in the opposite direction. "Back to the ship!"_

 _The Turtles jumped back into their ship. Donnie was now standing in front of a large computer._

" _Donatello, quick, activate the_ _ **SHELL CANNON**_ _!" Leo ordered his brother._

" _Roger!" Donnie shouted as he pushed a red button. A shell-shaped laser cannon came out of the Turtle's ship._

 _"_ _ **FIRE!**_ _" both Leo and Shredder shouted at the same time._

 _A long thin line of blue shot out of the Shell Cannon, while a red line shot out of the opposite cannon. The two lasers collided._

" _Donatello, power up!" Leo commanded._

" _On it!" Donnie pulled some kind of lever. The blue line was now thicker, resembling its increase in power. The red line grew shorter as the blue line grew longer. Eventually, the Shredder's ship was hit by the laser, causing it to explode in a ball of red-orange fire._

 _ **KA-BOOM!**_

 _ **NOOOOO!**_

 _The Turtles were now shown celebrating their victory, giving each other a high-three once again. Word bubbles hovered above them._

" _Woo-hoo!"_

" _All right!"_

" _We did it!"_

 _The last panel of the comic portrayed Leo smiling and doing a thumbs up, like he did on the cover. "Well done, crew! You make me proud to be your captain!"_

" _ **And so, the adventure continues for Captain Leonardo and his crew, for the rest of the universe still waits to be explored!"**_

 _ **The End**_

* * *

Leo closed the comic book with a smile. He could tell that Mikey worked really hard on this. He felt honored that his brother would take the time to make a comic book about him. He also appreciated that Mikey modeled his character after his favorite hero and idol, Captain Ryan from _Space Heroes_.

It was made clear in the comic that Mikey viewed Leo as a courageous, confident leader who never gave up, no matter what. A hero.

Hero…

 _"You did save our lives. But… you also used my favorite comic book as_ _ **toilet paper**_ _."_

 _"…Yeah, but I only did it so you'd chase me."_

 _"Well, it worked!"_

 _"Wait! Stop!"_

 _"Mikey!"_

 _"OW! OW! OW!_ _ **I'M A HERO!**_ _"_

The longer Leo stared at the character on the cover, the heavier the guilt weighed in his heart. The whole reason Mikey made this comic was because he felt bad about making Leo believe that he had defiled his most prized possession: his signed _Space Heroes_ issue # 1.

Of course, Mikey never really did use it as toilet paper. Leo checked, himself…after beating the living snot out of Mikey that day. But he felt he didn't need to apologize for overreacting. Mikey knew that it was very valuable to him. And for him to even _joke_ about using it to wipe his bottom with was unforgiveable.

Now Leo felt like taking that stupid comic out of his cardboard storage box and ripping it in half.

Mikey was the hero. He risked his life for his brothers. He never gave up, despite all the odds. _He_ was the one who deserved to have his own comic book made.

Not this insensitive and ungrateful jerk who'd let something so trivial strain his relationship with his brother.

He would definitely thank Mikey and apologize to him later. But even that wouldn't be enough. He had to think of a way to make it up to him.

And sure enough he would.

* * *

"You mess up everything, Mikey!"

Raph was getting way too worked up over a bunch of magazines that Mikey had gotten pizza stains all over. Mikey tried to appease his brother by "cleaning" one…with his tongue. That only made matters worse, and Raph hit Mikey rather hard on the head. Leo's eyes were focused on the pinball machine, but he knew that Mikey had a hurt expression on his face.

The way Raph was acting was all too similar to how he, himself, acted after Mikey had supposedly ruined his favorite comic book.

He didn't hesitate to come to Mikey's defense. He owed it to him, after all.

"It's just stuff, Raph…meager possessions. What does it matter?"

* * *

"Hey, Leo! Sorry to disturb you, but I figured you'd like to read some of your comics while you're cooped up in here. Wouldn't want you to suffer from a case of boredom."

There was no response from Leo, as was to be expected. He simply continued to lie still in the bathtub, as he had been for the past few days since the invasion. He hadn't yet opened his midnight blue eyes or made a single sound. Mikey missed those kind blue eyes. His missed hearing his oldest brother's soft and compassionate voice. He even missed Leo scolding him for all the pranks that he'd pull.

But he wouldn't give up on him. In fact, Donnie had recently told him that hearing familiar voices telling stories actually helps comatose people recover faster and eventually return to consciousness. So it was a good thing that Mikey had grabbed several of Leo's comics right before he left the lair. He didn't have enough time to grab _all_ of them, of course. But he made absolutely sure that the portion he did manage to get included the plastic wrapped one, which of course was Leo's favorite.

Mikey wasted no time in gathering up the comics and bringing them to the bathroom to read to Leo.

"Of course," Mikey grunted as he sat down next to the bathtub, "I know you can't actually _read_ the comics, yourself. So I'm going to read them to you! After all, I am the best comic reader in the world. You said so, yourself, I do the voices the best. So what are we gonna read today? Hmm..."

Mikey started to go through the stack of comics issue by issue, being extremely careful not to bend or tear them, otherwise Leo would have his hide after he wakes up. _If_ he ever wakes up…

"Let's see… _Arachnid-Man_ # 4… _The Indelible Bulge_ # 17… _Superb Man_ # 10… _Space Heroes_ # 1…huh?"

Why wasn't Leo's favorite comic of all time wrapped in its usual poly bag? He _knew_ he got the issue that was in the bag. But if the _Space Heroes_ issue wasn't in it, then what was? Mikey immediately searched for the plastic wrapped comic in the stack, and once he finally reached it, his eyes widened and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

It was the comic that he made for Leo shortly after the Parasitica incident.

Before, Mikey was certain that Leo had already thrown this away. After all, why not? The drawings were mediocre compared to the magnificent illustrations in his other comic books. And the storytelling wasn't perfect, either. Not to mention that he colored the pages with _crayons_ , like he was a four year old or something.

Yet Leo valued this crummy homemade comic enough that he'd put it in the only poly bag that he possessed, leaving the other comics, including _Space Heroes_ # 1, vulnerable to dust, dirt, finger oils, and ultimately, aging.

Mikey's vision blurred with tears, and as soon as he closed his eyes, the droplets landed on the plastic covering, which protected Leo's most valued comic from becoming stained.

He quickly dried his tears and looked up at Leo with a sad smile. "Well, bro," he said quietly, "I think I know what to read to you today."

He carefully removed the comic from out of the bag, opened to the first page, cleared his throat, and began to read in a dramatic narrative voice.

"Soaring through the vastness of space…"


End file.
